Woman on the Goa

April 1, Goa
After falling asleep at my gate in the airport ( I hadn’t really slept for two days) and nearly missing my flight, I arrived in Goa this morning at around 8 a.m. I could immediately tell that I was in a place different from any I had been so far. The air was thick with humidity and there were brightly colored statues of mermaids, men cutting coconuts open, and gods lining the way from the tarmac to the baggage claim… sort of like a weird, out-of-date Disney resort. While I was waiting for my luggage, I spotted two white girls about my age standing near me. I had seen them on the plane and they seemed pretty normal, so I decided to approach them to see if they were going anywhere near where I was going since I didn’t want to pay for a taxi to the beach by myself. It turned out that they were going to the same beach (Goa has about 15 beaches) I was and we shared our ride. Their names are Lena and Johanna and they are German medical students who just finished a month-long internship at a hospital in Bangalore. They told me they were staying at a cheap hotel – much cheaper than the one I had reserved, so when we got to their place, I got a room there as well. We ended up spending the day together and having a really nice time. Our hotel is called Couthino’s Nest and it’s a homestay (meaning that it’s someone’s house that has rooms to let out) owned by a woman named Agatha and her daughter, Fulla. It’s really cute and quiet and the living room is filled with hilarious chotchkes and stuffed animals and pictures of Jesus. Goa was a Portuguese settlement, so a lot of the people here are Christian. I have a single room with a shared bathroom and it’s costing me about $4 a night… pretty good!
The girls and I had some coffee at the hotel and then we headed down to the beach. We’re staying at Anjuna, which has had a long tradition of being a partier’s paradise – first the hippies came in the late sixties, and then the ravers came in the nineties, but now it has toned down almost completely (don’t worry, Mom) and it’s very laid-back and non-touristy. Luckily, Wednesday is the day that Anjuna has a huge flea market that all of the guide books say is a must-see in Southern India, and that’s when I happened to be here! After some much-needed relaxation time in the sun and bathtub -warm water, we walked over to the market and proceeded to spend way too much money! It was incredible to see all of the wares people were selling; bedspreads, jewelry, hammocks, clothes, knives, spices, trance music CDs, food, woodcarvings, doorknobs… you name it and it was there. Souvenir heaven. We got hot and tired and went to sit at one of the many beach-side cafes for a drink and some people-watching. The girls decided to go back to the market and shop some more and I took my towel down to the water and promptly fell asleep in the sun. I woke up to four young men kneeling around me, trying to sell me necklaces and asking for some of the water from my bottle. I shooed them away (you have to be really harsh with them or else they’ll bother you all day) and sat up to watch the beautiful sunset. While I was sitting there, a little girl came over to me and offered to do black henna for me. It’s a different type of henna that stains black instead of red and supposedly stays on for much longer. I negotiated a price with her and she brought me to her mother’s shop where she applied a beautiful design on both of my hands and forearms. Her name is Shilpa and she is twelve years old. As she was finishing the first design, The German girls came and told me they were hungry for dinner and by this point, so was I, so I arranged for Shilpa to wait for me until I finished eating and then come to the hotel to do the other hand… she suggested the plan, so I took her up on it. We ate at Shore Bar, which in the heyday of Anjuna was the place to go after the Wednesday market. Now it’s not as popular, but the food was good and the atmosphere was fun. I had a grilled baguette with tomato, avocado and cheese. It was divine …and a welcome break from vegetable curry and rice. We gathered Shilpa, and her brother as well, and walked back to our hotel. She finished the design and chatted happily to me the whole time. She is adorable, so smart even though she’s never been to school (her brother gets to go, of course, but it’s too expensive to send a girl to school). Being with her really made me miss my students at Shanti Bhavan and made me so happy that my kids there are being given the amazing opportunity to have the education they’re getting. Anyway, by the time she finished I was falling asleep in my chair, but I managed to hear from her that there is a festival going on tomorrow and there is going to be dancing at the local temple at 7 o’clock. I’m going to Panjim and Old Goa – the historical Portuguese settlements – tomorrow, but before I headed to my room, I arranged with my new German friends and Shilpa to meet at the temple at 6 tomorrow to see the celebration. It should be pretty cool. If I don’t sleep now, I’m going to die, so I will write more tomorrow!